Sunday, 3 October 2010

Camera mapping the Evil Pope

I recently discovered a technique that is used a lot in 3D graphics: camera mapping. It makes it possible to do 3D movement with a 2D image without having to recreate the entire image in 3D. I greatly enjoy playing around with this method, so I took a drawing by Marlies Barends and turned it into a 3D animation with facial animation and such.

The cool thing of this technique is that the result really looks 2D. Pause the animation on any frame and it may have been a drawing. Recreating something in 3D rarely maintains the 2D feel of the original, so I think this is pretty cool. :)

Also, all the examples of this technique that I have seen use environments. I guess others have tried animating characters this way as well, but to me this is a new usage of camera mapping.

It's a bit of a weird technique to explain, so please just have a look at the video and the image below to see how it works.

By the way, the music under the video is a quick track I was playing around with and felt like putting under it. Its main sound is a choir with a lot of distortion. Somehow my distorted mind thinks almost anything sounds cool with distortion...